Child Clubs

One of the tried and tested ways to improve schools and ensure that more children stay in school is to establish child clubs. These are attached to schools or they can be community based also. Mentored by a teacher and a designated community member, child clubs usually meet once a month. They discuss issues such as sports and library provision  for younger children or child marriage and child labour for older children. They have their own committee and a small budget, partly supported by NGO,'s such as ours, and partly by the community and the government. Sometimes they organise door to door visits to promote a particular issue.
When a new child club is formed, their facilitators help them to formulate an action plan for the year.At the end of every year they then do a self assessment and see which important issues still need more promotion in the school or the community. In a school this could involve the whole school in project work on a particularly important local issue, such as child marriage. This allows the student themselves to influence the school curriculum, something that UK schools could learn from!

A lovely true story to illustrate the importance of child club formation particularly in deprived areas of the country is of  13 year old boy who wanted to stay in school but had to leave and work on a construction site due to family pressure for him to earn much needed money.
The boy had been a member of a school child club and his fellow members reported that he had had to leave school early to the community child safety committee. They visited his family home but were told he was over 16 and so could legally work. His friends in the child club did not believe this and they went to the district education office and obtained his birth date. After that his family met with community leaders and agreed that he could return to school. This is just one example of how child clubs can be a force for positive change.

Dasain festival

Throughout Nepal cities have emptied, buses and vehicles have been crammed with people and the great Dasain exodus to the villages has begun. The hindu equivalent of Christmas lasts 10 days ( das  meaning 10 in Nepali) and everyone returns to their family home to celebrate. New clothes are bought, presents are exchanged and barley grains are germinated at the start of the festival to be used for puja ( worship) on the final two days. For those who cannot get to a temple to worship, there are tents in the streets of the cities with large statues of the gods and priests to give tikka (blob of red powder between the eyes)to those devotees who donate money. The most visible sign of dasain on the outskirts of Kathmandu are the herds of goat and water buffalo which are brought in for sacrifice to idols and then to provide meat for the feasting. They are dispatched with huge kukries( nepali curved blades) and the meat is then divided up. Despite the festivities there is a dark side to this festival. Many churches also put on programmes at this time since it is a national holiday.
Only the hindus worship idols with sacrifices, take tikka and puja their homes and vehicles with the remnants of the sacrifices in order to get blessings from their gods for journeys in the coming year ( see photos)
Roger and I chose to stay in the city for Dasain and have enjoyed exploring around the valley on our motorbike without  having to negotiate the heavy traffic.

ganesh idol worshipped with flowers, rice and coloured powder

goats waiting to be purchased for dasain

tableaux of gods and goddesses to be worshipped in the city streets

weighing a goat before purchase

vehicles being pujad  with goat remains , flowers and rice

Buying chickens for the feast

Dividing up buffalo meat after a sacrifice

young couple in their dasain best

festivities in street with dasain bamboo swing in the background